Roulston headlines strong field

Roulston headlines strong field for final round of Benchmark
Homes series

2 October 2013

World Tour
professional Hayden Roulston headlines a strong elite
men’s field that features a number of New Zealand’s next
generation of cycling talent in the final round of the
Benchmark Homes Elite Cycling Series in Canterbury’s
Selwyn District on Saturday.

Roulston, who will ride for a
strong Scotty Browns team on Saturday, is back in
Christchurch after an illness-affected northern hemisphere
season racing for his Trek Factory pro team which he rated
as solid but not spectacular. Roulston will potentially ride
in support of his Scotty Browns team mate Jason Allen who
lies second in the overall series classification, 14 points
behind Dunedin’s Brad Evans (Calder Stewart).

There will
be good interest in the performance of a number of the
county’s next wave of developing professional talent, many
of them riding off the back of European campaigns for a
variety of club and continental pro teams.

Seven riders
are still in contention for the overall elite men’s title.
Evans, who built his lead with strong showings in the first
three rounds of racing before heading to the Unites States
to race during the New Zealand winter, has the Under 23
classification sewn up, but former Commonwealth Games Track
representative Allen is only two points clear of veteran and
double winter and summer Olympian Chris Nicholson (Tasman
Wheelers) and his team mate Daniel Barry who has been racing
in Australia’s National Road Series for Budget Forklifts
with Sam Horgan who is riding for Scotty Browns on Saturday.
Others within striking distance for overall honours include
Michael Vink (Scotty Browns) and last rounds winner in
Nelson Tom Hubbard (Breads of Europe All About
Plumbing).

Tom Vessey from Southland based H&J's Outdoor
World Avanti+ should lead the charge of the ‘young gun’s
racing on Saturday. Vessey rode for Belgium based
continental team T.Palm-Pôle Continental Wallon, and is
just one of the young riders in the field capable of a
strong showing and upsetting some of his older more
experienced rivals during Saturdays 127 kilometre elite
men’s race which features two sections of gravel the
riders tackle several times.

Vessey will have good support
from team mate Josh Haggerty, a former Junior Worlds track
representative and national junior road champion, who capped
off a memorable last year as a junior last year wining all
three under-19 men's jerseys in the 30th anniversary of the
three-day Yunca junior road cycling Tour of Southland.

H&J's Outdoor World Avanti+ has several options to play
with Matthew Zenovich, another young rider who has also had
a solid season in Europe, also more than capable of pressing
claims for the win. Zenovich became the first Southlander in
10 years to win a stage in the Tour of Southland last
year.

TotalPOS Cycling Team leader Sam Lindsay could also
threaten on the challenging route. Lindsay, who has had
three season overseas riding for French Division National 1
team, Team Vulco vaulx en velin, has had several solid
performances in the series without a breakthrough
result.

National Under 23 road racing champion Hayden
McCormick, who had his second season riding for World Pro
Tour team Lotto Belisol’s Development Team, and Jason
Christie, who is back on the bike after recovering from a
crash while racing in Asia for the CCN continental cycling
team, are riding in a support role for their Breads of
Europe All About Plumbing team leader Hubbard who said it
was a ‘mathematical mine field’ working out who could
win on Saturday.

“I know there’s a chance of winning,
but there are a few calculations and things that have to
happen to get the result we want,” he said. “It’s flat
racing but there’s little doubt the gravel sections will
produce the winning selections.” Hubbard said his was keen
for his Breads of Europe All About Plumbing team to hold on
to its teams classification lead. It holds a narrow six
point lead over Nelson’s Tasman Wheelers.

This round is
unique in the series as it features two sections of gravel,
or ‘pave,’ that riders tackle several times; the elite
men will hit the first gravel section three times while the
masters and women ride it twice during their 99 kilometres
of racing. The final section of pave comes in the closing
stages with only 16 kilometres left; the chances of it
proving decisive in the final results are high.

Without a
win but after making the podium three times during the
series Ian Smallman (Team Thule Racing) has an unassailable
lead in the master’s 35 to 44 grade while things are very
tight at the top of the masters 45-49 classification with
Warmup Cycling’s Lee Johnstone only leading Blair
Stuthridge (Thule) by five points with Dunedin’s Paul
Gough (Cycle World) only two points behind
Stuthridge.

Wellington’s David Rowlands will be looking
to make it three wins from three starts in the series riding
for the strong Armstrong Subaru team that also features the
well performed Reon Park, Glenn Gould, Glenn Rewi and
Darrell Kircher.

Armstrong Subaru are locked on equal
points at the top of the masters team’s classification
with Team Thule Cycling placing extra emphasis on the team
time trial that opens racing on Saturday.

Like his Thule
teammate Jorg Engelbrecht has the over 50 masters series
wrapped up but women’s leader Elyse Fraser is only one
point clear of her Benchmark Homes team mate Sharlotte Lucas
with Nelson’s Karen Fulton (Tasman Wheelers) 14 points
behind Lucas.

Dunedin’s Georgia Catterick has to hold
off her Cycle World Fairweathers team mate Lydia Rippon to
win the women’s Under 19 classification while Christchurch
cyclist Tracey Clark is only three points clear of
Catterick’s mother Michelle in the over 35 category.

Racing warms up with the eight kilometre Faringdon Team
Time Trial before the battle in the Benchmark Homes Hell of
the South gets underway.

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